User blog:Blade0886/Blade's Thumbnail Contest
Yeah, real original I know. Thing is, i've been wanting to do this ever since I joined DoomFest's TN contest. Which means probably earlier than most of you :P. Nevertheless, I thought about something that might help me distinguish from the rest. First off, I'll be doing it tournament style. No face-offs that result directly into elimination. Everyone will get to fight one another, and each win will grant one point. To move to the second stage, the ones with the most points will advance. And so on and so on until the finals, where two users will face each other. See it like this: -Round 1: Contestants A, B, C, D, E and F face off each other. -Round 2: A, B, E and F face off. -Round 3: B and F face off. Since this is quite a lenghty process, I will not be taking many contestants. I'll settle with 10. The scoring system will be polls, but I thought that since I'm an experienced TN critic, I migth as well add my own touch. I'll first let the polls decide the winners, and then I'll describe each match in a similar manner than DoomFest does. I also might give awards if I feel like a particular TN impacted me in a certain way. But, these personal opinions of mine won't give out any points. They will only be guidelines for you to progressively get better. Henceforth, I declare open the registration process. - GmeaThe1; 2.5 points. - Warp; 2 points. - Dens(eliminated) - Qaunt; 3 points. - Masta; 3 points. - Ganime; 2.5 points. - UTF; 4 points. - Ahomes(eliminated); 1 point. - Shadow; 5 points. - Bon; 2 points. Round 1 Match 1 The theme is Girls only. Prepare your pitchforks and your boobs. Your mission, if you accept it, is to complete this task under 72 hours. *Gmea vs Ahomes: *Warp vs Masta *Dens vs Ganime: *Quant vs UTF: *Shadow vs Bon: Results: Here are the winners: Masta, Ganime, UTF and Bon. They all gain one point. Thoughts Gmea vs Ahomes: What can I say. I honestly don't understand people's choice here. Yes, Gmea's TN is a miilion times better than what Idem had, but to that extent? In my opinion, Ahomes still wins this one. It's just... so much more original. Gmea's a rather boring and standard TN tbh. Not SA style boring, but not far. Ahomes actually put some work into his TN, and that's what I appreciate with it compared to Gmea's. Warp vs Masta: The polls were surprisingly close. When I saw the complete match-up, I knew that one of them had to be the winner. And yet, this was still a 11/7 ratio. I guess I'll try to explain what happened here. Warp's TN does have some redeeeming qualities, such as framing. But, where it fails at, can't really be ignored. Firstly, I don't think the choice of pics was most adequate. The angle at which you see both opponents stand is awkward, and makes you think they'd be on a team-up pic rather than on a VS pic. And that's the whole problem. In my personal opinion, opponents on a TN need to look like they are going to fight each other. In a 1v1, that implies for them to either both look straight at the camera(aka you), either be mirrored in one way or the other(aka facing each other or turning their backs on each other). Lastly, I don't really like that TN. It feels like shitty JPEG quality, when I know it's just a colour-reversal. Now, onto Masta's TN. He suffers from the same problem than Warp, although he can easily fix his mistake. Just reverse horizontally Ryuko's pic so that they are facing each other, and this TN would be great. Aside of that, I have nothing to say about Masta's TN. Great framing, great pic choice. Definitely a top-tier. Masta easily takes this match. Dens vs Ganime: Where do I start? Dens's pic... was horrible. Let's admit it. The framing is so off that any qualities it could have are just nullified. Ganime's isn't that good either, but it at least has the framing somewhat on spot. Ganime's takes it by virtue of having the less flaws. Quant vs UTF: Now, this strikes as an oddity to me. Later on the day I put this round up, I saw Theultimatelifeform say: ">Raven vs Jean Grey. Gonna vote this cuz Waifu material". Now, I don't know how I should feel about this, but I think that most people who have voted for UTF voted for that precise reason. I've also thought about the recent shit Quant was having, and thought that maybe it was because of that. Hell, maybe because it's the both combined. But since I'm going to be impartial here, let me explain how Quant's TN trumps UTF's in every way, even though he won't get the points for it. First off, let's examine UTF's TN. What's good about it? The framing. Anything else? I can't find anything else personally. Choice of pics is rather average if you ask me, and you already know my stance on "classic SA style" TNs. Plus, this may feel biased, but I really really don't like the Season 3 TN. If you want me to like your TN, stop using it. Now, let's jump on Quant's TN. First off, we can see the dual-coloured TN, which works really good for any kind of match-up imo. Then, the framing. While Garnet is on point, Tifa could probably use some moving to the left. Choice of pics was near perfect. I mean, just look at their respective poses. Can't get better than that, and Quant made a wise decision in posting his TN late just so he could get a good-quality pic for Tifa. This match goes to Quant without contest. Shadow vs Bon: I am going to have to disagree with the votes here. Shadow's Bon sure looks nice, but come on. It has a plain background, and the art style(one of which isn't really an art style) clash so much I can't even put these two pics together no matter how I try. Next, Bon. Framing is especially good, since I personally find difficult to make TNs with both characters facing the camera. Choice of pics is excellent, and only for one reason: you made it look like Yang punched that hole in Texas's mask and Yang is now taunting her. I. LOVE. IT. Bon crushes Shadow in this match-up in my opinion. Match 2 The theme is Badass Swordsmen. You have 72 hours. *Gmea vs Quant *Ganime vs Shadow *Bon vs Masta *Warp vs UTF *Ahomes vs Dens Results The winners are , Masta, Warp and Ahomes. They all gain a point. Thoughts Gmea vs Quant: 'Conversely, I do not understand the literal stomp Quant has been having. Gmea's actually a pretty awesome one here! While poses don't necesarily match, I just love the aura feeling you gave to them. As I said before, I like how Quant managed to use Meta Knight correctly. Overall, I'd honestly declare this a draw. I can't pick between these two, they're just so good. '''Ganime vs Shadow: '''Pic quality doesn't lie. Even by disregarding the poor quality of Ganime's pic, I feel that the choice of pics is average at best. See, the theme was "Badass Swordsmen". With a title like this, I expect Badass Swordsmen, doing Badass poses. I don't know if Zoro simply smiling like this fits into his character, but this pic feels out of place during this match. Shadow's pic on the other hand is probably the best he put in this contest so far. Back-to-back poses work(it's kinda on the edge though), pic choices are good. I guess that since you like Sesshomaru so much, you couldn't pass onto this opportunity. Props to you Shadow. '''Bon vs Masta: '''Oh boy. We have a fight between my favourite TN of the match and my second least favourite. First, Bon's TN. I've mentioned above how hard it is to frame Meta Knight correctly, and you clearly didn't manage this as well as Quant. Plus, I'd be willing to say that the choice of pics wasn't that good. Both of the pics simply don't match. Now, onto Masta's TN. This is a fucking masterpiece. Poses? Check. Framing? Check. Creepy eyes of different colours? Check. Plus, the dual-coloured TN who fits into place here. 10/10 Masta, yo well deserved that point. '''Warp vs UTF: '''I have conflicting feelings about this match-up. Both of them made a 180 face-heel on their TN style, while making slight modifications hinting at their previous art style, and yet both manage to have a better TN than before. I'll talk about Warp's case first. You started with a personal style of TN, who backfired horribly. Now, you have a classic style TN, and it is pretty good for a classic TN. I like the effort you put into the background. Changes from the plain duo-colour this type of TN usually gets. But, then again, it is a classic style TN. Aside from that background, it's nothing special. UTF on the other hand, started with a classic style TN and didn't manage to do it very good. Here, I can feel he tried a more personal approach. It is more visually appealing, but in my opinion, it still doesn't work. Firstly, I am not sure that blue is the best colour for Nightmare. Secondly, while I notic the Hero vs Monster theme you seem to be having, I still think that they should have had similar poses. It doesn't add up, if you will. And, the black background. This is a remnant of the classic style that needs to go. Overall, i think I'd go for Warp's TN, who has the advantage to not have many defaults despite being a classic TN. Edit: I forgot to mention Warp. I was so disappointed with this TN for another reason. Remember the time in chat where you all started to post the TNs you were going to use? You come up with this awesome TN, and right off the bat say it's bad. I was refraining myself so hard of making any comment, and thus this TN unjustly ends up in the trash. Really, really disappointed on this(for those curious, I'm talking about thisTN). '''Ahomes vs Dens: '''Before I start, i'd like to say that both of this pics have some merit of their own. Ahome's TN is very well done, both close-ups of Ichigo and Cloud fitting well with each other, and that dark TN connoting their dark sides. Nothing more to say, Good TN, continue like that. Dens's was a significant upgrade from his last one. Here, the black background WORKS. And you actually managed to use a close-up of Meta Knight well. I fucking applaud you for that. The framing is somewhat off in my opinion. Ahomes takes this imo due to having a superior TN all-around, but I definitely want to give an A++ for effort to Dens. Match 3 The theme is "Universes? Pfft, such small things". You have 72 hours. *Gmea vs Shadow *Warp vs Dens *Quant vs Ahomes *Bon vs UTF *Ganime vs Masta ''Results The winners are , Warp, Quant and UTF. Ganime and Masta got a draw, hence they both get half a point. Thoughts '''Gmea vs Shadow: Gmea: A rather simple TN, with good pic choices and framing. It works, but it's nothing groundbreaking. Definitely one of the less creative TNs of this match. Shadow: Yeah, I dunno how I should feel about this. I'm really impressed you found a pic of such good quality for Sailor Moon AND looks official, but the problem comes when matching it to Lightning. The art styles clash definitely too much to be bearable in my opinion. And this seems to be a recurring problem with you Shadow(recall match 1?). I honestly have to give this to Gmea, only on the grounds that I can actually look at his TN without my brain feeling weird. Warp vs Dens: 'Small disclaimer here: I hope Warp doesn't have another surprise-hidden-under-the-rug TN for this match that he didn't feel like adding in. My heart can only take so many beatings. I like both of these TNs. Warp has that cosmic vibe to his, in majority thanks to his TN. Both pics fit each other well, and the framing is good enough. I will point out though: to quote Warp himself: "This TN feels underwhelming." And I would agree, although probably for different reasons. My reasons being, seeing the work you can produce when you put your back into it(a similar reproach was made last match), this feels undeserving. Let's just say I expected better, in particular with characters like TTGL and Madoka who have a huge amount of content. Dens's was a bold move, I got to admit. These two pics... at the same time fit and don't fit each other. Case in point: a pose for Shuma-Gorath in this position is what I would call neutral. It doesn't have any appeal, and as such could fit with many pictures at once. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I can't decide. Now, onto the other glaring characteristic of your TN: the speech bubbles. I personnaly like the way you included them, and is probably one of the only ways where including speech bubbles in a TN works, when it is 99% of the time prohibited, under threat of immediate penalty. Let's call this the exception that confirms the rule. Both Joker and Shuma-Gorath having speech bubbles describing their overwhelming power in their own personal way was an awesome trick, but this same trick won't work with any other TN. Again, Dens proves here that he can make efforts, and be original at the same time. For this reason, I personnaly give Dens the win here. Continue pleasing me Dens, you're on the good way to go. '''Quant vs Ahomes: '''This match-up to my eyes is less one-sided than it may seem at first. Quant went the original way. Both pics sort of fit each other, although it can be argued that the fact that neither Asriel or Arceus are facing each other is making the TN look weird. But, for all intents and purposes, Quant understood the theme of this match: power. And both pics illustrate the respective character's vision of it quite well(although I would be talking out of my ass if we're specifically speaking about Asriel, since I know next to nothing about him). Overall not a bad TN, but it honestly could use more work. Ahomes decided to play it safe. He has Bomberman and Megaman.EXE facing each other front to front, with a dual-coloured TN to accompany it. One obvious issue here though. the framing. It can be clearly seen that both pics don't fit within your TN, and it's too distracting to ignore in my opinion(unlike Masta's first match you bunch of *************** :P). I think that Ahomes has the TN with the less problems, so I will be giving the win to him. '''Bon vs UTF: '''This was a funny one, and I honestly never thought I'd say this in a match themed like this. Let me speak about UTF's first. It's quite clear to me he wanted to take the fun factor out of this theme, aka "I'm powerful and I do whatever the fuck I want because of it". And it works, especially with characters like Bill Cipher and Discord. Choice of pics was probably not the best though, and I honestly can't tell why you chose these specific backgrounds for each character(I couldn't tell for Discord, but I can say it doesn't fit Bill at all). While changing your TN to add in more effort was a good thing, it doesn't mean you can add things that make little to no sense to the characters you're taking. To change subject, I don't really get wha Bon tried to do in this round. While I don't know if this is a permanent physical characteristic for Dimentio, but I definitely feel an "Evil Eye" vibe, Dimentio being his yellow eye, and Shuma-Gorath... I really don't need to explain him to you do I? Aside of this particular aspect, I can't say both pics fit each other at all. And framing is, plain horrible. I mean, Dimentio's nearly whole body is shown, and the only things you can make out of Shuma-Gorath are his eye, and one or two tentacles. A weak one from you Bon. This match-up would definitely go to UTF, albeit both of these TNs would need heavy re-workings. '''Ganime vs Masta: '''Definitely my favourite match-up of this round, since it's the only one to have two good TNs to face off. Ganime's TN is safe and original at the same time. Bomberman and Archie Mega Man having their classic poses mirroring each other is just awesome. Hence, choice of pics is pin-point perfect. Framing was done very good too. And you actually managed to pull off a white colour for the TN, instead of just silver like what Ahomes did. Many applauses for you for that. However, let's see the competition. Masta has done a superb job with two characters that, ironically enough, don't immediately come to mind when thinking of this theme. Sailor Moon and Thanos somehow mirror their poses, all the while keeping their theme to it(aka gentleness for Sailor Moon and authority for Thanos). I do think that you would have been better off using a silver-coloured TN for Sailor Moon's half, but I am willing to let this slide(since I myself had the same problem in the past, and was forced to use Gold instead). The clear winner here is Masta, just for the extra research put into his TN. Match 4 The theme is "Gunslingers, never without a finishing bullet". Take ten steps away from each other, turn 180 degrees and the firs who shoots his enemy down wins! You have 72 hours. *Ahomes vs UTF *Ganime vs Warp *Bon vs Quant *Gmea vs Dens *Shadow vs Masta ''Results: ''The winners are UTF, Ganime, Bon, Gmea and . They each get a point. ''Thoughts: '''Ahomes vs UTF: '''Now, as I understand it, Ahomes rushed his TN because he wouldn't be there for the next few days. So, I understand the drop in quality. Nevertheless, Ahomes's TN is pretty solid, just nothing out of the park. Poses are there, framing is there, the TN is just overall quite boring to look at sadly. UTF made his own twist to the classic DP vs DS match-up, with a special mention for the background. I can't say that both pics match each other that well to be perfectly honest however. UTF is overall more visually appealing, so I'd give the point to him, but not by much. '''Ganime vs Warp: '''Now here is an interesting case, and hear me out on this one. I completely understand WHY Ganime won. Framing, poses, etc. Everything looks great. But, I feel like I'm the only one that is seeing how blurry the TN looks as a whole. Maybe it's just me, but it seems to be stemming mainly from Agent 47's side. Warp's TN, on the other hand... how am I going to describe this. I definitely see the connections between both of these pics, with an iconic pose for each of them, with a background revealing their true nature. But, as most of the people who voted, something doesn't.... click, for me, if you will. I can't put my finger on what, but the overall look of this TN feels inferior to what you'd think these two separated pics would look like together. I think a good resume of this would be: the idea was there Warp, you didn't work on it enough though. Also, I pray to dear God you didn't sacrifice another TN for the sake of this one(yes I know, you haven't done it on purpose for the third match, but my tiny little heart doesn't listen when it gets tricked three times in a row. I can guarantee you a fourth time isn't going to make it happy). I think I'd give it to Ganime because all he really needs to fix is that blurry impression he has(just look for better quality pictures, which is quite easy to do). '''Bon vs Quant: '''Now please, don't gun me down. I personally think... that Bon's TN isn't that good. *sounds of gunfire all around the room, and camera on Blade sitting in the middle of bullet holes.* ...Lemme explain myself if you please. I was fucking enthralled by Bon's TN the first time I saw it when he posted on chat, like everybody else. Since I'm European, I naturally read from left to right. So, who do I notice first? Cowbow Bepop. And fuck did that get me excited. For a fraction of a second. Then, my eyes turn to see the competition and... Uuuuuurgh. I'm sorry Bon, but I have to say this. THIS PIC OF COWBOW BEPOP WAS FUCKING WASTED. You couldn't have taken a worse pic of The Punisher to match with it. I could just stop at "the art styles clash too much to make it enjoyable", but thing is, I can't. This Punisher looks like some shitty prototype HISHE drawing. There is NO fucking way that this was going to work. And knowing The Fucking Punisher, there just HAS to be some better content for him. HOW COULD THERE NOT BE?! *mini-rant over* Urrh, now that I got that out, let's move to Quant. While I personally disagree with you when you say that's your best in this contest so far(Link vs Meta Knight hrum), I can see why you would think that. Both Inkling and Whoever match each other pretty good here, although I don't really like the apparition of the gun. Something that stroke me as odd though, why green for Inkling? I could have sworn her signature colour was orange. Oh well. Quant wins this by a mile thanks to The Punishit. '''Gmea vs Dens: '''Pretty standard match-up between pretty standard TNs, the way I see it. Gmea has interesting close-ups, offering a rather good perspective on both of the characters, but that stops there. Dens's... I seriously can't enumerate any redeeming qualities. Sure, the framing is good, but the TN is soooooo boring. Both of the poses are exactly the same here, and NOT in a good way. This isn't your worst TN so far(can't forget the horro of match 1), but it was definitely your second-worst. You can make good TNs when you want it Dens, just look at match 2 and 3, one of which I personally think you should have won. Match goes to Gmea, for having something interesting to show. '''Shadow vs Masta: '''Shadow seems to have put some effort into this. He actually managed to make a live-action pic fit well, in this case a 3D model. And you're going to have to tell me how you got to colour the borders of both pics in white so smoothly. Granted, it wouldn't look too good in most cases, but I feel like it can work here. Let's go and rate Masta's TN. Ironically enough, I don't like this TN for a number of reasons: first off, the detail I missed during the first match that others quickly made me aware of since it was apparently the biggest flaw of the TN even though I didn't even notice it, is made glaringly obvious here: Mami takes up 3 quarters of your TN. That in itself isn't a good thing, at all, even if it's to include all you wanted to include from a picture. Second reason: the choice of picture of Deadpool. Now, I don't know if it's because you were impressed by my TN during Sniper's contest(I WILL GET TO IT, WHEN MY BRAIN ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE PROBLEM), but that was quite a poor choice of picture, contrary to all the other Deadpool pics present. Need I remind you what the theme here is? "Gunslingers". And, with a theme like that, I don't expect pictures from simply genuine Gunslingers, but also seeing them in action! Now, seeing the gunslingers with nothing is fine to an extent. But your picture has Deadpool showing all his magic satchel of knives!!! WHEN DID I ASK FOR KNIVES?! If there was a disqualification system like on one of the contests on the main wikia, you can be sure as hell this would make the part. This match understandably goes to Shadow.(I'm keeping this rant to remind Masta of the point he lost: All i can say is: consider yourself lucky that Apro forfeited this round, because I'm pretty sure you would have lost that round had he actually remembered he was taking a part in this.) Match 5 Final match of this round, the 2 with the less points will be eliminated. If a draw occurs between these two, a bonus round will be implemented. The theme is "Your Favourite SA match-up, upgraded". You have 72 hours. *GmeaThe1 vs Masta *Warp vs Shadow *Dens vs Quant *Ganime vs UTF *Ahomes vs Bon ''Resu'lts'': The winners are UTF, Shadow, Quant and Bon. They all gain a point. Gmea and Masta are drawed, so they both gain half a point.' ''Thoughts: '''Gmea vs Masta: '''Here happens the second draw of this round. Is it well deserved? Weeeeellll.... Yes and No. Gmea's pic was real original, featuring interesting close-ups of both Ragna and Sol. I like the Red vs Green contrast effect Ragna's eyes give. An all around good TN, and the template itself just add a dark factor to the match-up that just fits the poses perfectly. Now, onto what Masta has wrought on us... I see you learned from past match. The art styles are ON POINT. This could not have been better done with the overall impression in mind. Not too many commments on the template choice, since I think it's a given. Who would I favour if I had to choose? If I'm being honest with myself, I would probably say Masta. But I definitely do understand why they drawed, and am very happy it happened that way. '''Warp vs Shadow: '''This is an odd one. We have a quite well-made classic SA-style TN vs a quite well-made original style. You lads already know who I'm going to vouch for right? Shad's pic is by no means bad, it just reeks of the absence of creativity. Warp seemed to actually have put in some effort to be creative, and God does it work. While it may seem Master Chief and DoomGuy aren't properly sized at first, a better look allows us to see that they in fact are, and all the better for it. I many times complained about your decision making when submitting TNs to this contest Warp, but I cannot complain about that. Keep it up. My vote definitely goes to Warp. '''Dens vs Quant: '''Ah, poor Des. I can tell you were trying to do something great, but sadly. Resizing pics without keeping the proportions is one of the worst things you can do when it comes to this kind of stuff(bad cropping IS THE WORST). This TN could have been great otherwise, granted you'd flip horizontally Raiden to face Wolverine. Quant is pretty average, to be completely honest. I mean, sure it goes outside the SA style, and has positioning and framing right. But, does it make you excited? Do you feel like this could be a match worth to remember? I honestly can't feel this way. I would give this match to Quant for overall having less flaws, but it kinda saddens me that Dens didn't go out of his way to make something exceptional this time. '''Ganime vs UTF: '''Oh boy, how do I speak of this? How do I describe the unexplicable feat of UTF managing to make one of my most hated SA match-ups my absolute favourite TN of this match? How? The scars goddamit, the scars. The framing, the poses. All of this emits incredibleness(I know that's not a word, cut me some slack). Ganime's isn't without worth: framing good, poses good, Murderous intent vs Calm resolution. But how, oh dear Lord how can it compare to what UTF cooked up for us? You have my sincere congratulations, UTF. '''Ahomes vs Bon: '''Ahomes had something good here. Choice of pics was pretty great, although I don't like very much the remnants of purple Psycho-power on M.Bison's pic. But Bon, even though you were lazy and re-used a precedent pic you already made, I gotta give props to you. I didn't think that Batman and Spider-man of all people could be this well matched. Poses aren't quite the same, but it's compensated by the way it looks. Batman coming down in true Batman-style, Spider-man watching him coming down sternly, ready to fight. Yeah, this definitely goes to Bon. Aftermath AND THIS CONCLUDES ROUND 1! If I had to describe the round overall, I would probably say it was 50-50. Sometimes there would be awesome TNs, other times absolutely horrid ones, with some decent ones in the middle. And so, the current score gives us our winners, and eliminated! Sadly, with a score of respectively 0 and 1, Dens and Ahomes are eliminated from this contest. But congratulations for the efforts you put in nonetheless, especially you Dens. There are definitely some points that you should have earned. If you want, you can still make TNs for the following rounds and matches and post them, but know that they won't be counted. Round 2 AND NOW, THE MOMENT YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! ROUND 2 IS BACK, AFTER NEAR 3 MONTHS OF ABSENCE. LET'S NOT WASTE ANY TIME. Match 1 Da theme will be "Rebellious man-made creations". You have 72 hours. *Gmea vs Warp: *Quant vs Masta: *Ganime vs UTF: *Shadow vs Bon: Category:Blog posts